The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-12-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Practical Discourse on Parental
Duty and Responsibility.
The Dangerous Results OF Extreme In
diligence and Unwise Severity Con-
trasted-Divine Hints Which Pa
: & rents Should Take Note Or

The subject of a recent sermon by Rev.
T. De Witt Talmage at thu Brooklyn
Tabernacle was parental Blunders."
His text was:
He fell from off the seat backward by the side
of the gate and his neck brake, and he died:
for he was an old man, and heayy.-L Samuel
w., Is.
DIR. Talmage said: This is the end of
long story of parental neglect. Judge Eli
was good man, but he let his two boys,
Hopbni and Phinehas, do as they pleased,
and through oveHindulgence they went to
ruin. The blind old Judge, ninety eight
years Of age, is seated at the gate waiting
for the news of an important battle in
which his two sons were at the front. An
express is coming with tidings from the
battle. This blind nonagenarian puts his
hand behind his ear and listens, and
cries: "What meaneth the noise OF this
tumult?" An excited messenger, all out
of breath with the speed, said to him:
"Our army is defeated. The sacred chest,
called the Ark, is captured. and your sons
are dead on the field" No wonder, the
father tainted and expired. The domes-
tic tragedy in which these two sons were
the tragedians had finished its fifth and
last act.
~. He fell from off the seat backward by the
side OF the gate, and his neck brake, and he
died: for he was an old man and heavy.
Eli had made an awful mistake in re-
gard to his children. The Bible distinctly
says:
His sons made themselves vile and he re-
strnined them not
Oh, the ten thousand mistakes in rearing
children, mistakes of parents, mistakes of
teachers in day school and Sabbath
classes. mistakes which we all make. Will
it not be useful to consider them?
This country is going to be conquered
by great army, compared with which
that of Baldwin l. and Xerxes and Alex
ander and Grant and Lee, all put together,
were in numbers Insignificant. They will
capture all the pulpits, store houses, fac
tories and halls of legislation, all our
shipping, all our wealth, and all our
honors. They will take possession of all
authority, from the United States presi-
dency down to the humblest constabulary
of everything between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans. They are on the march
now, and they halt neither day nor night.
They will soon be here, and all the present
nctive populatio of this country must
surrender and give way. l refer to the
great army of children. Whether they
shall take possession of every thing for
good or for bad depends upon the style
of preparation through which they
pass on their way from cradle to
throne. Cicero acknowledged he kept in
his desk collection of prefaces for books,
which prefaces he could at any time at
tach to any thing he wanted to publish
for himself or others; and all parents and
L Ill H. E., -
every young life under their charge, and
not only the preface, but the appendix,
whether the volume be poem or farce
Families, and schools, and legislatures
are in our day busily engaged in discuss
ing what is the best mode of educating
children. Before this question aim ost
every other dwihdles into insgnificance,
while dependent upon its proper solution
is tho welfare of government and ages
eternal Macauley tells of the war which
Frederick II. made against Queen Maria
Theresa. And one day she appeared be-
fore the august Diet wearing mourning
for her father, and held up in her arms
before them her child, the Archduke.
This so wrought upon the officers and
deputies of the people that with half
drawn swords they broke forth in the war
cry:
Let us die for our Queen, Maria Theresa
So, this morning, realizing that the boy
of to-day is to be the ruler of the future,
the popular sovereign, / hold him before
the American people to arouse their en-
thusiasm III his behalf, and to evoke their
oath for his defense, his education, and
his sublime destiny.
Propose in this discourse to set forth
what l consider to be some of the errors
prevalent in the training of children.
First, romark that many err in too
great severity or too great leniency of
family government. Between parental
tyranny and ruinous laxty of dis
cipline there is medium. Sometimes the
father errs on one side and the mother on
the other side. Good family government
is all-important Anarchy and misrnle
in the domestic circle is the forerunner of
anarchy and misrule in the State. What
arepulsive spectacle is home without
order or discipline; disobedence and i'm.
pudence, and anger, and falsehood lifting
their horrid front in the place which
should be corsecrated to all that is holy,
and peaceful, and beautiful. In the at
tempt to avoid all this, and bring the
children under proper laws and regula-
.tions, parents have sometimes carried
themselves with great vigor. John How.
ard. who was merciful to the prisons and
lazarettos, was merciless in the treatment
of his children.
In some families all the discipline is
concentred upon one child's head. If any
thing is done wrong the suppostion is that
George did it. He broke the latch. He
left open the gate. He hacked the ban.
nisters. lie whitfield sticks on the car
pets. And George shall be the scapegoat
for all domestic MISUNDERSTANDING and
suspicious. If things get wrong in the
culinary department., in comes the mother
and says, angrily: ''Where is Georgepi
II business matters are perplexing at the
store, in comes the father at night and
says angrily, "Where is George?" In
many a household there is such a one
singled out for suspicion and castigation
All the sweet flowers of his soul blasted
under this perpetual northeast storm. He
curses the day in which he was born
Safer in Bethlehem manger among cat
tie and cainels, with gentle Mary to waite.
the little innocent, than the most extrava
CANT nursery over which Gods star Of
peace never stood. The trapper extin.
yuichoc "a fla mas IN ho v,ro fria Nv 1; -